By Clint Thompson
Fruit and vegetable farmers from across the Southeast were in Savannah, Georgia, during the second weekend of January to attend the annual Southeast Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference. Producers from Georgia, Florida, Alabama and the Carolinas attended the show which was bigger and better this year. Many discussed the issues and concerns they have heading into this year.
That included Adam Lytch, with L&M Family Farms in Palatka, Florida. He talked about the labor issues his company had during the recent government shutdown. Click on the video:
Lytch said his broccoli crop was most affected by not having the H-2A workers on time.
“It’s such a sensitive crop to harvest on time. A lot of other things you have a little bit of wiggle room. Cabbage, we have some wiggle room. Peppers, when it’s cool, we have a little wiggle room. But things like squash and broccoli, there’s literally no wiggle room,” Lytch said. “Mainly on broccoli; we weren’t able to get the kind of cleanup on some fields and maximize some harvests. We just really didn’t get to clean it up like we would have liked.”